I'm going to be setting up a saltwater system and have been reading a couple books (Fenner's "Conscientious Marine Aquarist" and Paletta's "The New Marine Aquarium". They both stress the importance of a quarantine tank. I realize that medicating a 'show' aquarium is a bad idea (primarily because of the detriment to the life on live rock and of course, deadly to invertibrates).

If you need to treat a fish with medication and move it to a quarantine tank to do this, what is the liability of the medication on the biological bed in the quarantine tank? I realize the type and dosage of medication has a bearing on this, but, in general, how much would a bio. bed, be compromised by medicating it (in the quarantine tank). I'm interested in the thoughts and experiences that anyone has had with this.